Page:Remarks upon the Situation of Negroes in Jamaica.pdf/101

 in practical mariners, might be taught, and eſtabliſhed by cuſtom. If overſeers were better inſtructed than they generally are; and would addreſs the negroes with propriety of language, and treat them as human creatures, not as brutes, their commands would be more chearfully, and better performed. If the worſt of treatment cannot render them vindictive, how docile might they be made by gentle conduct?

I am aware that creoles are often taxed with inhumanity, as if they alone were the inſtruments of oppreſſion. The conduct of a plantation is left to the overſeer, and in his abſence to the book-keepers under him; and as they have the command and direction of the